Cbr16bingo Golden, +2 bingos
This novel won the Crime Writer Association’s 2024 Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel of the year. It is a riveting, disturbing and heartbreaking story that I didn’t want to put down. At the center of it is the disappearance of Deena Garvey and its impact on her daughter Ruby and sister Nessa. Una Mannion takes us back to the events leading up to Deena’s disappearance and then forward some 15 years later where the reverberations of this traumatic event are still felt. The novel alternates through time periods and also in narrative voice, sometimes giving us Nessa’s point of view and then Ruby’s. Looming in the background of both is Lucas Chevalier, Deena’s estranged partner and Ruby’s father. Nessa is certain that Lucas killed Deena. Ruby, who has no memories of her mother and believes she ran off somewhere, only knows Lucas as her father, a man who knows so much about everything and dotes on her, but who also has a frightening temper.
The novel opens with the morning of Deena Garvey’s disappearance. Deena and 4 year-old Ruby had been living with Nessa. Deena, a 30-year-old NICU nurse, left for work as usual but never showed up. Her best friend and co-worker Molly called Nessa to let her know, and thus begins Nessa’s nightmare. The police seem to drag their feet in looking for Deena. It doesn’t help that Deena has a history of depression and that there is an incident in her past that led to trouble for her at work and with the law. Lucas had Ruby for the weekend for his visitation rights, but when Nessa goes to get her, Lucas refuses to give her up. By law, only Deena can take her, and so Lucas takes his four-year-old daughter with him, kicking and screaming, while Nessa is powerless to do anything. Deena is missing and Ruby, the light of her life, is now with the man that Nessa believes has something to do with Deena’s disappearance. Lucas ends up taking Ruby along with his mother Clover back to Vermont, and he effectively cuts off all ties with the Garvey family, ensuring that Ruby never knows them or her family history. Ruby never knows that her mother disappeared, that Lucas was a “person of interest,” that she has family in Philadelphia who are fighting to see her again. She is raised to believe her mother was an irresponsible woman who abandoned her daughter. She is raised to believe that Lucas, a cybersecurity expert, is the sole reliable source of information in her life. And she learns, like her grandmother Clover, to read Lucas’ moods carefully and not arouse his anger.
Nessa, over the course of years, never gives up her hopes for seeing Ruby again. She works with a detective to make sure the investigation into Deena’s disappearance is not forgotten, but over time, even her brother and Molly feel like she needs to let it go. Nessa is clearly struggling with depression, and her singleminded focus on getting Ruby back causes trouble within her relationships with friends, family and her boyfriend. Nessa is relentless. It is through her and her recollections of the past that the reader learns of how Deena and Lucas met. The way he treated her from the first days caused alarm for both Nessa and Molly, but whenever they tried to talk to Deena about it, she became defensive. The reader sees that Lucas is a narcissist preying on Deena, and his abusive behavior escalates over time. We know that Deena somehow breaks free of him with Ruby, but we also know that Lucas is the kind of person who will never let someone else get the better of him.
Ruby’s point of view is heartbreaking to read. She is a smart little girl who learns early on how not to push Lucas’ buttons. She would like to know about her mother but knows not to ask. She knows that mail comes for her that Lucas hides somewhere and she knows not to ask about that either. When child services come to the door and ask why Ruby isn’t in school, new opportunities come her way. Going to school means making friends, but Lucas is very controlling (absolutely no computer access at school or at home) and also judgmental of the friends’ families. As Ruby grows older, even though she doesn’t have computer access, she gets bits and pieces of information about Deena, and eventually she learns that most of the people in her community know that Deena went missing and is probably dead. Everyone walks on eggshells around Lucas and no one seems to like him much.
As Ruby grows older and nears legal adulthood, it is clear that Lucas’ hold on her and his ability to control what information she gets is weakening. That makes Lucas angry and dangerous. Ruby is a smart young woman, but living with Lucas has taken a psychological toll on her, and the reader is on the edge of their seat waiting to see what is going to happen in this relationship. This could be one of my CBR16 favorites at the end of the year. The characters, the plot, the kind of information Mannion works into the story about custody battles, missing women, abusive relationships, even nature — it’s all outstanding. And if you know anyone who has been in a relationship with a narcissist, you’ll know that Lucas is a terribly realistic, and truly terrifying, character.
